Cat's In The Cradle
by Arisprite
Summary: Who would have thought that Merlin would begin his medical training on a stray kitten in a basket? Part 1 of the Physician's Apprentice Series.


**Title:** Cat's in the Cradle

**Author:** Arisprite

**Summary:** Who would have thought that Merlin would begin his medical training on a stray kitten in a basket?

**Word Count (This part):** 1,920

**Warnings**: (General) Wounds, blood, gore, potentially dangerous, and perhaps not thoroughly researched medical practices, tiny bit of swearing. No slash intended, but friendship can look like more from the outside. You're free to take my words however you like. (This part) A small fluffy animal in pain. No kittens were harmed in the making of this ficlet.

**Disclaimer**: Obviously I am not the owner of BBC or Shine. I'm a college student!

**Series**: Part 1 of the Physician's Apprentice Series (formerly titled Five Times Merlin Had To Heal Someone Else, and One Time He Had To Heal Himself). Merlin has gotten tired of never knowing what to do in emergencies, and heaven knows his healing magic is unreliable at best. So he begins to study medicine under Gaius, just in case.

**A/N:** I began this series with a healthy love for competent!Merlin, an obsession with doctors (which started with Aragorn many years ago) and an unhealthy attraction to whump in all forms. Thus, this series was born. Please, read, review and enjoy!

**Acknowledgement****:** To my sister, **Kate-7h, **who is awesome, and is my unofficial beta in all things Merlin. I owe you a treat!

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><p><em>Cats in the cradle, and the silver spoon. Little boy blue and the man in the moon. <em>

Merlin was alone in Gaius' chambers when a polite knock sounded on the door. Setting down the pestle, and covering the fine ground willow bark with a towel, so the draft wouldn't blow it away, he went to answer it. Usually when it was a polite knock, such as this one was, it would be nothing very serious; a headache, or someone had a cold, or perhaps just a visitor. A frantic beat, or thrown open doors were the more dire emergencies, either that or Arthur being impatient.

Such it was, that when Merlin swung open the door, the phrase that 'Gaius was away at the moment, but if there's something I can do..." was ready to fall from his lips. But when he saw who it was, said lips curved into a smile instead.

"Gwen!" He greeted, for it was her on the doorstep, smiling gently like always, and holding a large basket. "Come in."

"Merlin?" She seemed surprised to see him, and when he thought about it, it was rather rare for him to be hanging about his chambers in the middle of the day.

"Arthur's in council meetings." Merlin explained. "Told me if I can't stay awake, then I'd better make myself useful to Gaius." He waved his arm at the spread of herbs that needed powdering, sorting, and labelling.

Gwen giggled, and Merlin huffed. "It's not my fault council meetings are dead boring. Who could help but fall asleep with all their droning?"

"I'm sure I don't know, Merlin." Gwen allowed, smiling at him warmly. He laughed, then gave her another look.

"Is there anything you needed from Gaius? I might be able to help. He's gone to sort out another patient."

"I'm not sure..." She bit her lip, glancing down at her basket. As if noticing the attention, the basket made a strange sound. Merlin raised an eyebrow.

"Gwen, your basket just...squeaked." Gwen nodded, looking at it fitfully. Her worry then all spilled out.

"I found it in the square, and it was crying so terribly. I think it's hurt, and I wanted to see if Gaius would-"

"Whoa, whoa, Gwen. Slow down." Merlin put his hands on Gwen's shoulders, "What's hurt?"

Gwen lifted the lid to the basket, just as the basket, or rather, what was in the basket gave another pitiful peep.

Merlin saw that it was a young cat, tabby striped, and tightly packed into the basket wrapped snugly in Gwen's red cloak. The animal was crying, and struggling weakly, its tail flipping fearfully.

"It's his foreleg, I think it's broken. It couldn't walk on it when I found it. I think it's been run over by something."  
>Merlin saw that the leg in question was immobilized in the cloak. It was straight, and not unnatural looking, but was greatly swollen and obviously causing a lot of pain.<p>

"The poor thing," Merlin murmured in sympathy, reaching a hand into the basket to try and calm it. The cat closed its eyes when he stroked its head, and Gwen smiled.

"It would only hiss at me." She whispered, watching as it even started to purr.

"I've always been good with animals." Merlin said, still petting with one hand. "Now to just get a look at that leg..."

He had Gwen set the basket down on the table while he looked inside, the top of his head nearly hitting the opened lid of the basket. He didn't want to take it out yet; moving the leg would be a bad idea until it was wrapped, and would only cause the cat more pain.

The leg, like he'd seen at first, was very swollen and he was reluctant to touch it. He let his fingers hang over it for a moment.

"Do you want to wait for Gaius?" Gwen was nervously looking at him, and he gave her a reassuring smile.

"He won't be back for a while yet. I've been learning from him though, and I know what to do."

"Really?" Merlin glanced at her raised eyebrows.

"Don't look so surprised," He laughed. "I've been helping out for a while. Well, when I'm not running around after Arthur."

She laughed too. Then Merlin turned back to the cat.

"I need to feel if the bones are lined up, but it will hurt..." He trailed off, thinking. Then without a word, he jogged up the stairs to his room, returning before Gwen could even open her mouth to ask what he was doing. He pressed a coin into her hand.

"Can you go buy a jug of milk from Sara Beth in the market? She has the best cows in town." Gwen nodded, taking the coin and running out the door.

Merlin also needed some water, but he didn't want to leave the cat here alone, nor attempt to carry it through the square to the water pump. The pained mewing was sounding from the basket again, and he reached in a pet its head, making shhing noses at the creature.

There was a step from behind him, and the door opened. Merlin turned around, surprised at Gwen's quickness, but it wasn't the maid on the doorstep.

"Arthur!" The prince had his mouth open, probably ready with a reprimand for not being busy for the physician, and a list of chores, but Merlin cut him off. "Perfect! Stay here with him." And without another word, he grabbed the water bucket, and ran out the door, leaving Arthur with his mouth open, looking nonplussed.

Merlin pumped the water, and made it back to Gaius' in record time, entering the hallway just at the same moment that Gwen did, carrying the small jug of warm milk. His smile of greeting was lost in her start when she realized that Arthur was in the chambers, peering into the basket. Merlin smiled again, and went to put the water on the fire to boil.

"Guinevere!" He greeted. She smiled at him. Then Arthur, tired of being in the dark turned to Merlin. "Merlin, what's going on? Why do you have a cat in a basket?"

"Gwen found him." Merlin answered, taking the milk, and heading to the cupboard for a shallow bowl.

"We think he has a broken leg." Gwen said, looking sadly at the mewing striped head in the cloak. Arthur, though he may have teased Merlin for taking in wounded fluffy animals, only saw it as endearing from Gwen. He glanced at the basket sympathetically, reaching a hand inside.

"Careful!' Gwen said quickly, and Arthur pulled back his hand fast enough to avoid a swipe from its claws.

Merlin, meanwhile was scooping a tiny pinch of the willow bark he'd been pounding earlier, and mixing it with the bowl of milk. He'd seen Gaius do this for one of the hunting dogs, and so for the cat, he simply lowered the proportion of milk to powder. Then he carried the bowl over, and sat in front of the cat filled basket.

"This should lower the pain." He said, dipping his finger into the milk solution, and lowering his hand so that the cat could lick it from his fingertip. Arthur made a movement to stop him from putting his hand in, and seemed surprised when the cat eagerly ran his rough tongue over Merlin's finger.

"It's nice to you." Arthur positively whined, and Merlin smiled.

"That's cause I'm a nice person." He stated, dipping in another few drops. The cat lapped it up.

A few minutes of this, and then most of the milk was gone, and the cat lay limp, its eyes half closed. It allowed Gwen to pet its head now, so she did so, while Merlin gathered the other items he'd need. The boiling water was done, and he removed it from the fire, bringing it to the table. He also gathered bandages, and two straight rods that happened to be on the shelf. Arthur watched him move about curiously.

"Shouldn't you wait for Gaius to set it?" Arthur asked, and Merlin felt a flash of annoyance.

"I know what I'm doing." He replied, positioning himself in front of the open basket and the drugged cat. "Arthur, can you hold it down?"

Arthur hesitated to put his hands in, not knowing where to place them. Merlin grinned at him.

"It won't bite you now." Arthur scowled at him, and put one hand over its shoulder and neck area, the other held the unbroken foreleg. Gwen kept petting its head, while Merlin began to poke at the hurt leg. He felt down the bones, past the swelling. It was mostly straight, though there was a lump, where the bone had what felt like a crack in it. Good, it wasn't snapped in two, just a fracture. The first thing he did was wash the leg, then wrap it in a layer of linen. Then, he measured out the two rods, and used a knife to cut them to the correct length. Splinting the leg was easy, simply wrapping more bandages around the leg to hold the rods in place, and keep the leg straight and immobilized. Then it was done.

Merlin sat back, and became aware that Arthur and Gwen were watching him; Arthur slightly incredulous, and Gwen smiling proudly.

"That was wonderful, Merlin." Gwen told him, "Thank you." Merlin blushed.

"Thank Gaius, he taught me."

Arthur rubbed his chin.

"I have to say, Merlin, you did show a certain amount of skill, rare enough as that is." Merlin smirked.

"Thank you sire." Sarcasm was a joy sometimes. Arthur looked closely at him.

"You said Gaius has been teaching you?" Merlin shrugged.

"In my free time." Arthur nodded.

"Well, I may have to give you a little more free time. Having a man who knows medicine out in the field could come in handy."

Merlin stared at him. "Really?"

Arthur then leaned in close, pointing a finger bare inches from his nose. "But, if I find that you're using that free time to slack off, or sleep, or be the lazy idiot you usually are, you'll find the hours when you're not mucking my stables becoming nonexistent."

Merlin, his eyes on the finger tip in front of him, nodded slightly. Arthur smiled then, and slapped him on the back. "Wonderful. I'll inform Gaius he has a new part time assistant."

Merlin gave him a weak smile. Gwen laughed at them, from her place beside Arthur, shaking her head at her boys.

They turned their attention back to the cat, who was now almost sleeping, it's splinted leg propped up on the cloak.

"Gwen, I don't want to move it yet, but you can borrow my coat if you need it." Merlin said quietly, fingering her bright red cloak that was currently cushioning the little cat. She shook her head, smiling as she rubbed the little ones head.

"I'm alright to get home. It's very mild outside." Gwen stood, and gave Merlin a hug. "Thank you, Merlin."

Arthur stood as well. "I'll walk you home. It's getting dark outside." Gwen smiled at him, and Merlin just grinned.

"Oh go, you two." He laughed. Arthur smacked him over the head playfully, shaking his head in exasperation.

They passed Gaius as he came in, and he watched the prince and the serving girl leave curiously. Then, finding Merlin hovering over a basket, and the willow bark completely unpowdered, Gaius put his hands on his hips.

Then he heard a meow.

"Now, just what is going on here?"


End file.
